Will Blockchain Change The Way We Invest?

Although bitcoin and other crypto currencies are surging, it’s important to remember that the cryptocurrency market and the majority of cryptocurrencies are still in the early stages of development. Currently, the value of all the Bitcoin in the world is around $90 billion, much less than individual companies such as Amazon ($474.41 billion market cap), Google ($649.49 billion) and Apple ($815.39 billion). However, with the current trend, some investors predict cryptocurrencies to be worth $5 Trillion by 2022.

As cryptocurrencies are becoming more common, new blockchain powered platforms are emerging to change the way we invest. The success of these companies may create a scenario in which fintech companies like Robinhood, Fundrise, Quantopian and others - currently considered the most disruptive companies in the world – will become outdated in a few years. Here are a few examples of interesting new platforms founded in recent years.

Real.markets - Disrupting real estate crowdfunding

Real estate crowdfunding continues to be a dynamic and ever-evolving industry. By 2025, the crowdfunding industry as a whole is anticipated to be valued at more than $300 billion and online real estate marketplaces are primed to capitalize on that explosive growth. Real estate crowdfunding is allowing millions of new investors to participate in the real estate game. However, most of the platforms suffer from limited local global access, lack of liquidity and long bureaucratic process.

REAL

Buying real estate properties with the REAL Token

REAL (Real Estate Asset Ledger) team is applying blockchain technologies to the world of real estate investments in order to solve those issues. REAL is an Ethereum Smart-Contracts governed ecosystem that focuses on creating the best conditions for Real Estate investment eliminating costs due to unnecessary intermediaries, providing transparency and liquidity, alleviating tax inefficiencies and easing cross-border transactions under a unified crowdfunding platform.

A recent U.S. real estate study showed that “Chinese investors have poured $110 billion dollars into the U.S. market in the last 5 years (both commercial and residential). This investment is set to double in the next 5 years.” In all likelihood, a certain amount of these investment funds will find their way into alternative funding options such as real estate crowdfunding, as foreign investment expands in the U.S. Experts believe this tendency towards growth is largely due to worldwide economic uncertainty and foreign investors seeking new destinations for their investments.

NASDAQ LINQ - Trade private companies

Almost two years ago NASDAQ launched LINQ, a digital ledger technology that leverages a blockchain to facilitate the issuance, cataloging and recording of transfers of shares of privately-held companies on The NASDAQ Private Market in collaboration with Chain.

Managing shares of private companies is considered to be one of the ideal test cases for the uses of blockchain technology. Usually a labor-intensive, paper-based, manual process involving paper stock certificates, option grants and convertible notes that quickly become outdated, the so-called distributed ledger technology behind bitcoin will enable it to be managed digitally, making it more efficient and secure.

As more and more companies choose to stay private longer, fueling a rise in the number of so-called unicorn startups, many are seeking efficient solutions for managing shares in such companies, and a few startups are offering software to do so.

Algorithmic trading and machine learning are proving to be disruptive trends in investment management. From 2009 to 2015 alone, the amount of assets under management (AUM) by quantitative hedge funds grew at a rate of 14% year-over-year, nearly double the 8% year-over-year growth of assets managed by traditional hedge funds. The traditionally opaque and secretive asset management industry is also being challenged by more egalitarian access to financial data, which has successfully enabled the development of crowdsourced investment strategies. Moreover, the barriers to enter algorithmic trading are swiftly being dismantled, offering new investment opportunities to a burgeoning open source community of developers, quants, traders, and investors.

Following the rising demand for crypto-currencies, enigma believes an interesting opportunity arises: algorithmic trading on crypto-assets. Many exchanges already offer the ability to place orders through RESTful APIs, permitting users to run their trading algorithms locally. However, traders are currently forced to develop the infrastructure for development, testing, and deployment of their trading strategies. These systems involve an inordinate amount of complexity, data curation, and otherwise impose a significant barrier to safely begin experimentation with algorithmic trading of cryptocurrencies.

This is probably just a starting point

Cryptocurrencies, tokens, and ICOs are already an integral part of the fast-growing decentralized economy. These investment platforms - utilizing cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology - are probably just the first wave of many to follow. As cryptocurrency adoption rate is surging, we are probably going to encounter many more fintech companies to pivot or expand their solutions to cryptocurrencies. New players will continue to enter the market, trying to take advantage of the current blockchain and ICO opportunities.